Friday 26 February 2016

SPOTLIGHT & GIVEAWAY: HEALING LOVE by ABBY NILES


Enter to Win a Love to the Extreme eBook Series Bundle (Books 1-3) 


Healing Love
Love to the Extreme #4
By: Abby Niles
Releasing February 15, 2016
Entangled
 
BLURB:
Doctor Ella Watts wants her old life back. Desperately. But the past has returned for its rematch, and going back home—even telling anyone her real name—isn’t an option until she’s confident in her MMA abilities. Personal trainer Lance Black is the man to help her reach her goals. Not only is he toned, muscular, and gorgeous, he’s patient, a great teacher, and willing to treat her like a worthy opponent. Except his size makes her freeze whenever he gets too close. If Ella can’t learn how to overcome her fear of being attacked, she’ll never be able to move on with her life.
 
Underground fighter Lance Black knows there’s more to the mysterious blonde ninja than a beautiful woman determined to improve her fighting skills. She can best anyone close to her size – man or woman – but insists on working out with him, even though he’s got a good 70 pounds and several inches on her. Despite her reticence, he’s determined to get her to open up so he can help her get over her mental block. And if that means he can get to know her outside the gym, all the better.
 
As long as she never learns his secrets.
 
Buy Links:   Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Google Play | Kobo
 
 
 
           “What’s she looking for?” Lance asked, refocusing on the present. She had impressed him yesterday with her chokehold, but that didn’t mean she knew squat about MMA. That could have simply been adrenaline spurring her on.
“She was pretty specific in what she wants.” A weird expression crossed Mac’s face, a mixture of consternation and intrigue. “She’s not looking for a pussy workout—her words not mine. She wants a trainer who knows a lot about ground work, but can also help her build the strength and speed of her stand-up. She wants to be treated just like any of the male fighters in this building and the most interesting thing is she wanted a light-heavyweight build. That’s you.”
Lance stared at his friend for a second, digesting the information. That was a tall order from someone just coming in for a workout. “Does she fight?”
That was the only explanation for her requests he could think of. In recent years, women fighters had surfaced in the industry and they kicked some serious ass.
“Nope. Just does this as a hobby.”
Kind of an intense hobby for someone who had no interest in making it a career.
“She’s good,” Mac continued. “Watch her.”
Lance crossed his arms over his chest and studied her inside the ring, still circling with Billy, dodging his attempt at a takedown. She was a beauty. Even with everything that had been happening, he’d noticed that yesterday. Hell, he’d have to be blind to miss it. After she’d sent Ralph to the ground, she stood there with confidence oozing off her. No fear or intimidation had even flicked in her eyes as the man towered over her. Other than the birth of his daughter, it was the most awe-filled sight he’d ever seen. When Ralph had started to rise, Lance had been uncertain of what the man was capable of, so he’d stepped forward, daring him to try anything. And still, she hadn’t wavered in her confident stance.
Today she was the same. Except she wasn’t wearing jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt. No, today she was in a tight teal workout top and matching spandex shorts. The outfit showed off the softs swells of her toned, athletic body.     
Suddenly, she went down on both knees and flipped Billy over her back onto his. The canvas thudded under the impact of his body. Impressive.
“I’ve watched her all morning,” Mac said. “She’s fucking something and has been training for a while.”
“Is this all you’ve seen her do?”
“Nah. Billy warmed her up on the bag. Dude, let me tell you, that woman has a fierce right hook. I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of it.”
The woman, while still shapely and soft, had a steel quality about her—a don’t-even-think-to fuck-with-me aura. He liked that.
She would be fun to train. As much as he needed to keep his distance from her, a thrill encased him now. Maybe they could leave whatever happened yesterday outside the door.
 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Abby Niles is the author of the contemporary MMA series, Love to the Extreme, and the paranormal series, The Awakening. She is also the author to the geeky romantic comedy, Defying Convention, where Live Action Role Players (LARPers) set out to teach their favorite author a lesson, but end up playing matchmaker instead.
Abby lives in North Carolina with the love of her life and their combined gaggle of kids. When she’s not writing, she’s trying to catch up on an endless pile of laundry and find time to get some much needed reading in.

Author Links:
 
Hello everyone! I’d like to thank Book Magic for having me on their blog today! They’re letting me share the top three scenes from the new release in my Love to the Extreme series, HEALING LOVE. HEALING LOVE is the 4th book in the series and follows Lance Black and Ella Watts. I really enjoyed writing this book, not only because Lance is another yummy MMA hero, but also, because I got to take a little detour from the professional MMA circuit in this story. Lance doesn’t fight pro like all my other fighters do. He fights underground. This gave me the ability to give the story a fresh new twist with the MMA portion of the book. You guys know how much I LOVE the MMA portion of the book.
Here’s a quick excerpt of one of those scenes:
After the referee backed away, giving the all clear for them to fight, Lance circled around Kelvin. The size difference was hard to ignore. Not that he hadn’t gone against bigger men before—he had, but they still fell within his weight class.
 
This dude was fucking huge.
 
The man swung out a massive arm. Lance ducked then countered with a right hook into his side. The man lumbered around. Lack of speed was one disadvantage guys this big had, though a punch from this fucker would knock Lance straight the hell out, because their strength was brutal. The best thing he could do was keep moving.
 
He danced around Kelvin, making sure to stay outside the man’s reach and going in for punches and leg shots only when the fighter left an opening. Aggressiveness wouldn’t help him. This was a defensive fight. They couldn’t just go at it the way all the other fighters had. He had to be smart about it, use his opponent’s size against him.
 
At the lack of action, the crowd began to boo. Every damn one of them could kiss his fucking ass. Real fighting wasn’t just about swinging blindly at each other. It was knowing your opponent, knowing yourself, and not getting caught up in the chaos.
 
“Fight me, asshole,” Kelvin said around his mouth guard.
 
Another thing I loved about this book was the chemistry between Lance and Ella. This couple definitely don’t meet under the best circumstances. So their interactions go from this:
 
As she snapped the lid back on, her head slowly turned in their direction, scanning first Mac, then Billy, and finally landing on him. Those blue eyes immediately narrowed and her nose scrunched in a scowl. Knowing it would goad her, he fluttered his fingers in greeting. Her scowl deepened.
 
“I probably should get over to her,” Lance said to Mac. “Can’t keep a paying member waiting.”
 
As he approached her, she muttered something that sounded remarkably like, “Who in the hell did I piss off?”
 
A chuckle tickled the back of his throat, but he beat it back. He wanted to rile her up, not flat out piss her off. He leaned against the bottom rope. “So, we meet again.”
 
She gave him an irritated look. “Unfortunately. Don’t worry though. I’ll mind my business. You do your thing. I’ll do mine.”
 
He definitely deserved that snide jab. “Guess you won’t be thrilled to hear I’m Lance, huh?”
 
A soft, derisive laugh shot out of her mouth as she hung her head and shook it. “And there’s my luck again, in all its glory.”
 
To this:
 
"In fact, I can think of a few other ways I could take care of you.”
 
Had he just moved closer?
 
Yes. Yes he had.
 
Her heart thumped hard against her ribs. Now, these feelings she could get on board with—wanted to get on board with.
 
“What other ways could you take care of me?” she shocked herself by asking.
 
In just a few steps, Lance closed the distance between them, standing directly over her so she was forced to tilt her head back to look at him. For years, she’d felt some sort of panic at having a large man tower over her. Not this time. Not now. All she felt was excitement. Desire. A thrilling throb that reminded her that she was a woman. And damn if it wasn’t a liberating feeling.

I love taking two people whose first impression of each other are BAD and changing their minds once they’ve been seen in a different light. Thanks for letting me share some of excerpts from HEALING LOVE with all you today!


 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Tuesday 23 February 2016

RELEASE BLAST: ATONE by BETH YARNALL


Enter to Win $25 Amazon eGift Card
 
 
Atone
Recovered Innocence #2
By: Beth Yarnall
Releasing February 23, 2016
Loveswept
 
BLURB:
Beth Yarnall’s sexy and emotional Recovered Innocence series continues as two broken souls discover that keeping their hands off each other is even harder than facing their demons.
 
Beau: Six years. That’s how long I spent behind bars for a crime I didn’t commit—the murder of the woman I loved. Now I’m free, but life on the outside is a different kind of prison. I don’t know who I am or who I want to be. At least I have my sister, Cora. She never stopped believing in me. She even got me a job at the private investigation agency that cleared my name. And then Vera Swain walks into Nash Security and Investigations and kicks my world on its ass.

 
Vera: There’s only one thing that would make me come out of hiding after two years on the run: finding my sister. I made the mistake of telling a monster about her, the same monster who beat me and broke me. Now I’m forced to confide in Beau Hollis of Nash Security and Investigations. He looks at me like he knows me—the real me. He sees too much, makes me feel too much. The pleasure he offers is exciting and addictive. But I can’t fall for him . . . because my love could get us both killed.
 
Buy Links:  Amazon | B & N |Google PlayiTunes | Kobo
 
 
 
I don’t have much of value. I’ve left so many things behind that objects no longer have any meaning for me. I could walk out of this pay-by-the-week motel with nothing but the clothes on my back and I’d find a way to survive. It’s a skill that served me well as I got tossed from group home to foster home and back again, and then when I was finally spit out into the world with literally nothing. I left everything when I escaped . . . including my name. You don’t know what your limits are until they’re pushed past breaking. My boundaries have been stitched and restitched back together too many times. I no longer have a sense of what it’s like to be able to set my own parameters.
I’m working on that, but it’s slow going and meticulous. Mostly I stay isolated. Interactions with other people are kept to the bare minimum, unavoidable social necessities. I avoid eye contact and speak only when forced to. I don’t like what I see. You can tell a lot about a person by what lurks in the depths of their eyes. Every ugly thing they think and feel hides there. They smile, but it doesn’t pretty up the person they are inside. What’s that saying? Like putting lipstick on a pig. That’s what smiles are for me. People will smile at you while they hurt you. I no longer trust them.
Everybody has an agenda. I learned this from my mother, whose only plan was letting anyone who would pay her shove their dick in her so she could put a needle in her arm. I learned it from the foster families who accumulated children like part-time jobs, cashing in the checks they got for taking us in, then barely feeding us. And I learned it from the police who failed to protect, and the only serving they did was to their own self-interests.
I don’t know how long I can stay in San Diego. The need to keep moving rides me hard. I’m too close to where everything started and where it ended. Marie is the reason I’m here and the only reason I’ll stay for any length of time. I have to find her. Javier knows about her. I was too stupid not to mention her when I first met him. He’ll remember and he’ll use her to get to me, to get back at me. I can only fight him so far. I will never win against him. But I can try to outsmart him by staying ahead of him and finding Marie first.
Someone bangs on the door and I jump. No one knows I’m here. At least they shouldn’t know. I’ve been careful. But obviously not careful enough. I pull out my gun. It’s always on hand. I don’t have to check it to know it’s ready if I need it. At the door, I stand off-center and look through the peephole to see who’s there. My heart explodes in my chest and I sag in the corner between the door and the wall, breaking out into a sweat.
What the hell is he doing here?
He strikes the door again. “Vera!”
What does he want?
“I can see your shadow under the door,” he says. “Open up.”
I can’t make myself unhook the latch or answer back.
“I’ll keep your secret, but I at least need to know why I’m keeping it.”
I try to work up some spit so I can speak. How did he find me?
“The cameras in front of the agency picked up your Colorado license plate,” he says, answering my unasked question. “It wasn’t easy finding you.” His voice gets quiet, as if his face is pressed to the door. “I want to help you. Let me help you.”
I swipe the sweat off my upper lip. The gun is heavy and reassuring in my shaky hand.
“I didn’t tell Cora. I didn’t tell anyone. I promise. Please, open up.”
My feet barely support me as I come off the wall. I don’t know why I’m doing it, but I slide the lock back and open the door, staying behind it for whatever imaginary protection it can give me. Beau sidesteps through the door and into the room. He’s larger than I remember, crowding his big body into the small room. With the flat of his giant hand he closes the door. I hesitate for a moment before choosing the greater of two fears and slide the lock back into place.
His gaze goes to my gun. He shoves his hands into the front pockets of his jeans and acknowledges it with a jerk of his head. Other than that, he doesn’t do anything. He doesn’t say anything. We stare at each other, sizing each other up. I hope I haven’t made a mistake letting him in. A thousand questions sit on my tongue, but I don’t ask them. He said he was here to help. I need help. I don’t want to need it. But there it is. I don’t want to trust him, yet somehow I do. I think I should be afraid, but there’s nothing about him that drives me to run.
“Why are you here?” I finally ask.
“Is she really your sister?”
“Yes.”
“You’re afraid for her.”
“Yes.”
“You’re not going to tell me why.”
“No.”
“Okay.”
He doesn’t ask the question I would ask: Who are you? Because there’s no doubt he knows I’m not who I say I am. He could’ve called the burner number I put down on the agency’s form. Instead, he tracked me down. Was it only to show that he could do it, or is there another reason? Maybe he’s trying to prove to me that I can trust him with this gesture. He could’ve handled it so many different ways, but he chose to maintain my need for anonymity.
“Do you mind if I sit down?” he asks.
 
 
 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Beth Yarnall writes romantic suspense, mysteries, and the occasional hilarious Tweet. She discovered romance novels in middle school and hasn’t stopped writing since. For a number of years, she made her living as a hairstylist and makeup artist and co-owned a salon. Somehow hairstylists and salons always seem to find a way into her stories. Yarnall lives with her husband, two sons, and their rescue dog in Orange County, California, where she’s hard at work on her next novel.


Author Links:  Website | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads
 

 

Thursday 18 February 2016

REVIEW & GIVEAWAY: TAKING THE SCORE by KATE MEADER


Enter to Win $25 Amazon eGift Card
 
 
Taking the Score
Tall, Dark, and Texan #2
By: Kate Meader
Releasing February 15, 2016
Entangled Brazen
In Taking the Score (Tall, Dark & Texan #2) by Kate Meader, Emma Strickland has done her best to look out for her little sister, but the unpleasant situation she finds herself in at the moment couldn't possibly get any worse, or could it? By day, she's a mighty fine PA. Yet, it's the job she has at night that she's been forced into that is taking its toll on her. Even though it's for a good reason -- to pay off her sister's debts. Moonlighting as a waitress at a sleazy strip club is easy enough, but when she's forced to give a lap dance to a VIP customer, is when things start to get complicated since the customer is her daytime boss.
Brody Kane can't get his assistant out of his head, but he knows getting involved with her is not a good idea. Business and pleasure should never be mixed. However, a night out with his newest client brings forth possibilities he never imagined, especially when the beauty giving him the worst lap dance ever turns out to be his prim and proper assistant.
This is the first book I've read by Ms. Meader, and I've got to say that it does not disappoint. I was hooked from the opening line, as Brody is facing a dilemma where his friends are pushing, for him to find a woman to have a night of fun with; and from there, the book kept getting better and better with every challenge this couple faced.  
I really liked Brody and Emma, and the dialogue between them was so entertaining that I finished this book rather quickly. Emma has had a hard time in life in caring for her sister. Trying to solve her sister's problems seems at times too much for Emma to handle. Yet, she's a fighter. I liked that about her. Her independence and stubbornness made it seem, as if the only person she could rely on was herself. Then again, that was understandable, considering her past.
While Brody, he has a real knight in shining armor quality to him when it comes to Emma. Yet, his arrogant and demanding ways did frustrate me at times because he didn't trust Emma when she needed him to. Even though, she'd never given him any reason not to trust her. She told him over and over again that she was willing to handle her own problems. That she didn't need him to save her.    
When it comes to women, Brody finds it hard to trust because of how his ex deceived him. Yet, Emma tempts him so much that he can't stay away from her. So much so, that hot, fan-your-face sex scenes heat up the pages, as Emma and Brody give into their intense chemistry, which was there from the moment they first interacted and just kept building the sexual tension between them until I thought the pages would spontaneously combust. 
Overall, this was a really great read where the secondary characters are determined to get Emma and Brody together, and which has me looking forward to the next story in the series. The ending wrapped the story up nicely with the way Brody convinced Emma that he needs her in his life. Then there was the surprise that Emma had for the hero, which made Brody absolutely ecstatic. I would recommend Taking the Score by Kate Meader, if you enjoy sexy heroes that like to be the heroine's knight in shining armor.
OVERALL RATING:
   

BLURB:
A sexy category romance from Entangled's Brazen imprint...
 
His office temptation is now his full-blown fantasy…
 
Paying down her sister’s debts has left Emma Strickland with little more than the thrift store suit on her back. And as if the suckfest couldn’t get worse, she’s forced to moonlight as a waitress to support herself and her cat. At a strip club. Her uptight, sexy-as-hell boss Brody Kane can never find out.
 
Texas property tycoon Brody Kane hired Emma for her spreadsheet skills, but her prim and proper demeanor sealed the deal. There’s no room in his life for a sexy distraction … and yet, he can’t stop lusting after the delicious Ms. Strickland. And then he takes an important client to a Chicago strip club and gets the worst lap dance in adult entertainment history. From Emma.
 
Now that he knows his office good girl has a naughty streak, Brody makes it his mission to uncover her secrets, one steamy, illicit, over-the-desk encounter at a time. But Emma is hiding more than her side job, and her final secret could end up destroying them both.
 
Buy Links:   Amazon | B & N | Google Play | iTunes | Kobo
 
 
 
Good. Fuck.
Brody had entered some sort of fever dream. East was west, up was down, and Ms. Strickland was a stripper who had just wrapped her typing fingers around his granite-hard cock.
His prim and proper personal assistant was neither prim nor proper, but he’d give her top marks on her next performance evaluation for personal. The hand stroking his dick was very personal indeed. No way in hell was he gifting sexy little Emma Strickland to whatever drunken louts remained out on the main floor. If he had to buy the damn club so he could stop her from working here, he would.
Right this minute, his gorgeous PA belonged to him.
His gorgeous stripper PA.
All these contradictions were driving him mad with curiosity, confusion, and mind-wiping lust. He had to know more about why she was here.
He had to know her.
His mouth returned home to hers, teasing, dragging a frustrated moan from her throat.  She chased his lips but he pulled back, then went in again with a nip of her lower lip. Soft and pillowy. He shouldn’t be playing this game with her. It wouldn’t give him information. It would only frustrate.
Them both.
Brody—”
Hush, now, I’ll give you what you need.” He ground his cock against her hand, and her shocked gasp almost undid him. “That’s what you want, right?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “That’s—yeah, that’s—”
No, this is. Though it killed him, he removed her hand and hitched her leg over his hip so he could rub his best parts against her best parts. A grinding thrust had her moaning, a sound so sweet he longed to hear it over and over. If he could hear it along with his name when she came, it would be revelatory.
The problem was he might shoot off first.
He had to get her off quicker. Still with one hand under her ass, his other found the zipper at the side of her shorts and pulled, creating a gap for his searching fingers.
They both moaned as he entered taboo territory. She was already soaked, her slick heat spilling over his fingers. Every stroke ramped up her moans, drove him to brink. To feel her clamp down on his fingers as she rode them through her orgasm— The goal spurred him on. His mouth was so close to hers he could have kissed her again, accelerated the pace, but he didn’t want to miss her eyes, which had fluttered closed.
Look at me when I make you come, Emma.”
Those eyes flew open, fiery blue suns exploding with desire.
He resumed his teasing stroke below and kept his gaze on his target: those beautiful lust-stoked pupils. Little silver sparks seemed to light up when he stroked a little slower. She liked it languorous. All women were different, but his experience was that most preferred it quick, more friction, get it done.
Not his Emma. She rocked against his hand, her mouth parted in a silent plea.
He turned his finger so the callus glanced over her clit. Her breathing quickened. She tried to say something but nothing emerged, her words lost in the build to her orgasm.
Fascinating.
He had always enjoyed puzzles, working things out, moving pieces around until it made sense. Ms. Strickland did not make sense.
He would learn her.
He plunged two fingers in and thumbed her clit, spreading moisture over where she was most sensitive. She cried out and locked down around his digits.
That’s it. Squeeze me tight, baby. Give me a preview of what my cock can expect.”
Shit, he needed to shut that down. Not chatty by nature, in Brody, lust seemed to open some conduit in his brain and tap into his basest desires, producing a torrent of dirty talk most women blushed to hear. A nice girl like Emma Strickland would not enjoy his trucker mouth, but then he recalled that he was no longer dealing with a nice girl.
His dick was still contained, and this was already the hottest fuck of his life.
 
 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Originally from Ireland, Kate Meader cut her romance reader teeth on Maeve Binchy and Jilly Cooper novels, with some Mills & Boon thrown in for variety. Give her tales about brooding mill owners, oversexed equestrians, and men who can rock an apron or a fire hose, and she’s there. Now based in Chicago, she writes sexy contemporary romance with alpha heroes and strong heroines who can match their men quip for quip.
 
Author Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads